When the original two-act version of Madama Butterfly premiered in Milan on 17 February 1904, the audience was not impressed. Puccini had struggled to complete the score, and there simply wasn’t enough time for proper rehearsals. Despite notable singers Rosina

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) called his opera La fanciulla del West (The Girl of the West) his “greatest work.” Puccini must certainly have felt a sense of accomplishment as the opera was seven years in the making, and originated during a

When Arturo Toscanini raised his arms at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 25 April 1926, he was getting ready for the premier of an unfinished opera. Turandot, the operatic adaptation of an originally 12th-century Persian epic filtered through

Here is the trivia question for today. Can you name the Puccini opera that the composer himself desperately wanted to forget? The answer is Edgar, and despite revising it repeatedly, Puccini eventually declared the work irredeemable. Edgar was Puccini’s second

“Minors of the Majors” invites you to discover compositions by the great classical composers that for one reason or another have not reached the musical mainstream. Please enjoy, and keep listening!

You may not be able to name the title but you must have heard the famous soprano aria “Un bel dì vedremo” from Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly or Madama Butterfly. In this article, let us revisit the inspirations and